Advocates of agencification — the practice of “hiving off” functions into formally separated organizations — claim that it is an effective way of reducing political interference in operational matters.  Some have doubted the claim.  In the current issue of Governance (22.4), Morten Egeberg and Jarle Trondal use data from two decades of surveys of Norwegian civil servants to show that the argument has merit.  Organizational setting “makes a clear difference,” they conclude.  “Officials within ministerial departments are significantly more sensitive to signals from executive politicians than their counterparts within national agencies.”  Read the article: Political leadership and bureaucratic autonomy: Effects of agencification.